Hello Again...Ibiza

Now that even the weather has adopted a dripping, grey and windy attitude, I suddenly remembered the sunny Ibiza pictures somewhere hidden on my computer. It was already my third time on Ibiza, when I visited the island last August together with 5 of my closest friends who I already know for 15 years. We started with our yearly trips when we where only 15 years old as loud & insecure teenagers. In that time, we didn't had any money, so our trips were limited to camping with a tent or renting a crappy house somewhere in the countryside. But since a few years, we finally all have a full time job and can pay for a somewhat luxurious holiday. This time, that was Ibiza. We rented a beautiful house in Can Tomas (via airbnb) with a BIG swimmingpool and lovely veranda. Next to sitting at the pool and drinking wine (80% of the time), we also found time to visit the hippy market, had dinner at the sushi bar of Ushuaia, Minami, watched the sunset in San Antoni and went partying in Pacha. It was the good old times, served in a luxurious Ibiza jacket. Like! I am already curious what will happen next year. Now it can only go up, right ;)?

 

 

Autumn Menu

I am a sucker for pumpkin. If you want to make me happy, feed me a pumpkin soup. It works like chocolate, I am only focused on my food when I eat a good pumpkin soup. But since I live with a guy now, time has come that I can't eat pumpkin soup every other day. Apparently, it is not a meal. *Sigh*

Despite my dissapointment, I did not want to surrender just like that. Therefore, I found a way in still  eating pumpkin (almost) every other day. And that is with roasted pumpkin, as a side dish of course. Today, the roasted pumpkin accompanied a steak with raspberry compote and goatcheese.

What do you need (2 persons)?

1/2 pumkin, in thin slices

thyme

honey

olive oil

dandelion salad

vinegar

mustard
pepper & salt

steak 

goatcheese

raspberry compote

What do you do?

Slice a half pumkin in thin pieces and put in an oven platter with (a good amount of) olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Roast it around 25 minutes, get it out of the oven and shift the pumpkin slives around. Roast it for another 10 minutes. Get it out the oven again and sprinkle honey on it, after that roast it another 5 minutes. Please check the pumpkin now and then with a fork, it has to be soft with crunchy on the sides. Get some dandelion salad on a plate and make a dressing with olive oil, vinegar, mustard and pepper and salt. Sprinkle it on the salad and put the roasted pumpkin on top.

Grill the steak with pepper and salt. Put it on a plate, put 3 small slices of goatchees on top (that way it melts) and some raspberry compote to complete it.

Bon appetit!

Staring at Jacob

The neighbourhood 'oud west' in Amsterdam has welcomed a new brunchroom. At the crossing of the Staringstraat with the Jacob van Lennepkade, Staring at Jacob has settled down. The owner, also known by G&T's Really Really Nice Place and Fraiche has used his creativity not only for the restaurant's name, the menu is even more interesting. Try a ' Tree Hugger' (quinoa with kale, chickpea and tofu, with yoghurt and granola on the side) or a 'Benny Hill' (poached eggs, english muffin and smoked avocado) together with a mimosa or maybe a screw driver to drink. Sit yourself down at the large wooden tables, or wait in the 'waitingroom' on the wooden tin-up chairs until the lovely English-speaking host comes to lead you to your table. Really really like the place? Then you can even buy one of the wooden chairs for 25 euros, paint it in you style and donate it back to the restaurant and enrich Staring at Jacon with your own style. You might get discovered by one of the arty visitors ;)

Staring at Jacob

Jacob van Lennepkade 215

Amsterdam

    

Autumn

It is October and it still is sunny and warm. They have warned us for bad weather coming up, but I don't want to believe it since last weekend I could still walk outside with a skirt and bare legs. The trees do behave like autumn though and that results in a beautiful scenery, especially with the bright sunlight shining through.

My new home

Yay! I am so happy! I finally have a real house. Say goodbye to living with friends and hallo to living with the boyfriend :) And it is really good. With a new house, we also decided to get an almost-new interior. Since we both didn't have that many stuff, we had all the freedom in finding an interior that would fit us both. Because my brothers are cabinet makers, I have the luck that I could design two new tables together with them that are completely my taste of design. And it almost cost nothing :) Of course they are in search of some good PR too, so look underneath for their great industrial designs. The two tables are made of scrapwood and the dining table is combined with two blue trestles we found at this steel fabric where we were allowed to search for some old stuff. Sometimes you just have to be a bit bold to get what you like ;) Because the tables are all but new, with a rough, unfinished look, I have chosen two lockers that fits this kind of look. The large locker is an oldie, I bought through marktplaats (you can find precious things there, but make sure not to pay too much!) from a photographer who used it in her former working space. We are planning to create shelves in this locker and make it a bookcase for all the cooking books (my broyfriend has hundreds of them). We found a nice steel-look bin and I combined eveything with my vintage chesterfield couch, that brings a bit of romance in the living room. I am not yet finished with the accessories yet, but managed to find some old bottles, nice vases and an antler that I have put on the dining table to make it more cosy (the table is 2 meters by 1 meter, so there is enough to decorate it and still have plenty of space to eat!). The industrial table is made more modern with help of my eames friends. Not the real ones yet, I am saving up for those in the future ;)